This is the README file for netplug, a Linux daemon that responds to
network link events, such as a network interface losing or acquiring a
carrier signal. Netplug is licensed under the GNU General Public
License, version 2, and is copyright 2003 by Key Research, Inc.
What is netplug?
----------------
Linux already supports plugging in and configuring the likes of
Cardbus network interfaces, in the form of the hotplug subsystem.
Netplug provides the corresponding support for plugging and unplugging
cables into network interfaces.
When an Ethernet-style network interface on a host is plugged into a
powered-up switch, hub, or other host, the two use a carrier signal to
establish that the link is alive. The Linux kernel makes this
information available through its netlink interface.
The netplug daemon listens for carrier detection and loss messages
from the kernel's netlink subsystem. When a carrier signal is
detected on an interface, it runs a script to bring the interface up.
When carrier is lost, netplug runs a script to bring the interface
down.
Why use netplug?
----------------
If you use static IP addresses, or your host is always plugged into
the same port on the same network, there's not much benefit to using
netplug. Netplug comes into its own in two situations:
- If you're a laptop user who migrates from one network to another,
you can use netplug to automate the management of your network
interface as you unplug from one network and plug into another.
Without netplug, you are forced to manually run commands such as
"/sbin/ifup eth0" when you plug into a new network.
- If you have a large computing cluster, you may periodically need to
move hosts around to balance the loads among a collection of
switches and file servers. If you only need to move network
cabling, you can leave a host running, with its interfaces managed
by netplug, and netplug will reconfigure its interfaces when you
move the host from a busy switch to a less lightly loaded one.
Adapting netplug for different situations
-----------------------------------------
The netplug daemon has no notion of policy or integration with a
particular Linux distribution. Those are abstracted out into a
script, /etc/netplug.d/netplug. This script is responsible for the
distro-dependent mechanics of:
- Probing for interfaces to manage
- Bringing an interface up, in response to carrier acquisition
- Bringing an interface down, in response to loss of carrier
Helping out
-----------
Patches to integrate with different Linux distributions, add features,
fix bugs, add documentation, and so on, are all welcome, as are
suggestions for improvements.
If you use BitKeeper, you can generate patches against
http://laptop.bkbits.net/netplug which is the main netplug
repository. Otherwise, "diff -u" style patches are fine.
Contact
-------
The author of netplug is Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>.